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I’ve listened to Mind Over Mirrors’ latest double-LP, Bellowing Sun, a whole bunch since its early-April release—but it didn’t occur to me until halfway through this performance at Brooklyn Bazaar how much of a Cluster vibe it has going. The other thing that struck me was how dexterous each of the players was, taking on multiple instruments, often at the same time. The band is the same as last time we saw them, which is Jamie Fennelly joined by Janet Beveridge Bean, Jim Becker, Jon Mueller (I guess your first name needs to start with J to join the Mirrors—my loss there). Bellowing Sun is a little unusual in the Mirrors’ catalog as its the result of a commission from Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The piece as it was performed in Chicago this past April was accompanied by a multimedia sculpture and light installation which, if the pictures are any indication, was pretty damn cool. Jamie says there is a possibility of bringing the entire experience on the road. But for now, we got to hear the entire Bellowing Sun played live at Brooklyn Bazaar last week. I can’t even describe how amazing it is to see four musicians pull off this complex, layered performance, so I won’t: the music speaks for itself.

Thanks to the Brooklyn Bazaar staff for their hospitality. The new venue sounds great and we hope to be back soon. Enjoy!

You knew it had to be Northside Festival because the G was barely running… But that didn’t stop us from trekking up to Williamsburg for the excellent and right-up-our-alley Monofonus Press showcase with Spray Paint, Beech Creeps, Running, Matchess, and the Kid Millions/Jim Sauter duo. You know we’re fans, so I’ll spare you my fawning, but also know that Spray Paint have a new record out on Goner Records, Feel the Clamps, which came out June 3, and it’s awesome as usual. The band showed up prepared with a lot of killer new material from that album we hadn’t heard yet like “Styrofoam Garbage,” “Brat Beater,” and “Burn Barrel, ” alongside some (slightly) older gems like “Polar Beer,” “Middle Relief,” and “Rest Versus Rust.” This show wrapped up the band’s tour, but be sure to keep an eye out for some West Coast 2016 dates to be announced soon.

I recorded this set from our usual location in Union Pool with a board feed from FOH Robert. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Last month, we were pleasantly surprised by the addition of Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band to the Northside Festival‘s premier event: Luna’s first NYC show in a decade. Our love for the Moteliers is no secret by now and their late breaking appearance in McCarren Park gave us the chance to soak in some sun and suds with our favorite Philadelphians. Though all the tunes here will be familiar if you’ve been following along this year, the latter three-fourths of the set—”The Rarity of Experience, Parts 1-2,” “High Castle Rock,” and “Harmonious Dance”—is all new material that will appear on the next Solar Motel record due out on No Quarter in 2016.

NYCTaper recorded this set in the same manner as Luna’s set from the same day. There are a couple spots of wind, but none mar the recording and the sound is excellent. Enjoy!

We last saw Beach Fossils at what would be our last show at Glasslands, a venue with which we had a long and cherished history before it closed on New Year’s Eve 2014. Prior to that, we saw the band play one of the late-era shows at 285 Kent, another now-shuttered venue with which we also shared much history. So at this point, we would much rather experience this excellent band at a show celebrating something new and on Friday we got the chance. Bayonet Records is the new label founded by Beach Fossils’ protagonist Dustin Payseur and former Captured Tracks General Manager Katie Garcia and their debut Northside Festival showcase was a fine display of just how well we expect this label to succeed. It was a four-band bill (more recordings coming later) that was anchored by this Beach Fossils set. The entire show had a celebratory affair and by the time the Fossils took the stage, the venue was in full-on party mode. Upfront, the fans were crashing and bouncing throughout the set, which featured a fine run-though the band’s catalog, and one new song. A new album is expected in 2016. Unfortunately, at one point the middle of crowd got a bit too boisterous and literally a fight broke out. But Dustin was having none of it, as his stopped the band, pointed out the brawlers and made them hug before finishing the set. The show’s finale was a blistering version of “Daydream” and we are streaming that below.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards mounted inside of the soundboard booth and mixed with a fine feed from house FOH Kam. The overall sound quality is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

Luna’s first show in New York in 10 years was one of those damned-near perfect evenings that pretty much represents why we do what we do here at NYCTaper. On a beautiful night, one of the great New York bands in recent memory played a superb show before a huge crowd for the opening night of the Northside Festival. Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips are married, perform often together, and live in LA where they are friendly with drummer Lee Wall, and the couple have also played with guitarist Sean Eden on a few occasions, including a show we recorded in 2012. So, the Luna reunion was by no means a surprising event, but it was so sweet in its fruition.

The first reunion show this year was a night in LA in April, and then the band played sixteen dates in Spain and Portugal (Dean’s tour diary is a great read). When they returned to the US for this one-off Brooklyn show the band was in sync, relaxed and poised to deliver. From the opening “Slide”, the first song on the first album, through personal favorite “California” (streaming below) and continuing with a career-spanning setlist the show never really let up with the positive energy. The between-song banter also indicated that the band was both having fun playing and having fun being together. Several times the band acknowledged specific uber-fans, people wearing vintage Luna t-shirts, and various landmarks on the NYC skyline. Dean has remarked that Sean Eden has never played better guitar and on this night Sean seemed to be having the time of his life. The show was also special because the night was Britta Phillips birthday and the band acknowledged that fact early in the set. The main set concluded with an incendiary eight-minute long “23 Minutes in Brussels” (which we are also streaming below), before the band returned for two well-deserved encores including their cover of Beat Happening’s “Indian Summer”.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards mounted in front of the soundboard cage and mixed with an excellent feed. The wind was not too bad but can be heard a few times, but fortunately the board cage was moved closer to the stage this year so that the audience feed is quite good. This mix favors the audience feed by about 60/40, giving it a nice “you are there” feel with the board used as a supplement to fortify the overall sound. The result is a superb recording that we feel fairly represents this great night. Enjoy!

If you Download this recording from nyctaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Luna, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the links at their website, from Bandcamp and the Long Players Box Set from Captured Tracks Records [HERE].

Here at NYCTaper we’ve been big fans of the Northside Festival, and L Magazine and indeed the Stedmans for quite a while. And we hope the feelings are mutual — we’ve hosted multiple Northside showcases over the years and have been the subject of several L Magazine profiles too. But the show that seems to have been the pinnacle for the Fest has also been one of our favorites and that’s the Saturday afternoon mega-show at McCarren Park. In previous years we captured the uber Guided By Voices event in 2011. But this year it was a whole other level — one of the best live bands in the world playing in the bright sunshine in front of a few thousand adoring fans. Thee Oh Sees return to NYC after a brief “hiatus” was met with quite a bit of enthusiasm — by the time the band began their set much of the huge McCarren yard was filled. Indeed, John Dwyer joked that the next night’s show at Death By Audio would have a capacity one-fourteenth the size of this day’s crowd. After an introduction by Daniel Stedman, the band ripped through more than an hour of their intense garage-rock before the show’s curfew called an end to the set. We’ve previously discussed Dwyer’s move of the band to a trio but on the big stage in a huge venue, the three oh sees had no problem filling up the sound. As John announced, they’ll return to NYC in November and we’ll certainly be there again.

I recorded this set with the Neumann wide cards set up in front of the soundboard tent about 80 feet from the stage and mixed with a fine stereo board feed. The problem on this day was the wind. It was blowing and bursting right into the face of the stage, so that there is phasing that’s present in the board feed through the mics on stage and also in the sound projected by the speakers. There is no wind noise problem in the mics because of was in front of the tent, and protected by both the mic grills and big windscreens. Other than the wind-phasing, this is an excellent recording. Enjoy!

Stream “Lupine Dominus”:

Download the Complete Show in both FLAC and MP3 by utilizing our Personalized WeTranfer Page [HERE].

We are very pleased to be able to partner with WeTransfer to offer direct downloads at NYCTaper without the limitations of our server speeds and without the limitations of other download services. WeTransfer offers our readers unlimited downloads at excellent speeds. This is a partnership that we believe will benefit the site and our readers and we’re quite pleased to be working with WeTranfer.

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

The Sacred Bones Records showcase was the last show I saw at the Northside Festival, and it was also one of the ones I anticipated the most. First, because I try to never miss a chance to see bands I like at Glasslands, and second, because it was a stellar lineup from beginning to end. Of the bands playing, Amen Dunes were one I had not seen before, but they won me over early with their hypnotic, dark sound that recalls Syd Barrett, the Velvet Underground, Suicide and 13th Floor Elevators, among others. Founder and frontman Damon McMahon has claimed that he gets nervous performing live, but you wouldn’t have known it during this confident, if too short, set. Of course, it’s unlikely that McMahon could see us any more clearly than we could see him given the huge clouds of man-made fog he played in. If nothing else, the fog gave the show even more of a narcotic vibe.

This set gave us a taste of some of McMahon’s best songs from his recent record, Through Donkey Jaw. McMahon’s songs, now produced by a three-man band, tend to be downtempo affairs, but they held this crowd rapt, especially on numbers like the opener to Donkey Jaw, “Baba Yaga”. We were fortunate enough to catch a second, slightly longer Amen Dunes show on the following Sunday at the Knitting Factory when nyctaper saw Amen Dunes opened for another of our favorite bands, the Wooden Shjips (that recording [HERE]). McMahon is one of those artists whose integrity and brilliance you recognize instantly, and we both felt that way when we caught our respective sets.

I recorded the Glasslands set with a soundboard feed and Schoeps MK5 microphones; the Knitting Factory set was similarly recorded with Sennheiser MKH-8040 microphones and a soundboard feed. Both are outstanding, with excellent house mixes. The Glasslands recording favors the soundboard more, while the Knitting Factory recording favors the sound from the Sennheiser microphones. Enjoy!

Stream “Lower Mind” from the Knitting Factory:

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Stream “Baba Yaga” from Glasslands:

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Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Amen Dunes
2012-06-24
Knitting Factory
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded by nyctaper
Produced by acidjack

As noted in our post back in May about the band, this site has followed Crystal Stilts from early on in their career. In my times seeing the band, I have watched them grow from at-times diffident live performers into a dialed-in act whose performances retain the ramshackle greatness of their earlier shows, but deliver a polish on their instruments and a solidity to their sound that was missing in some of those earlier shows. The band closed out the stellar Northside Festival showcase put on by Sacred Bones Records in real style, keeping Glasslands filled to capacity even though it was well after midnight on a Sunday. This set went everywhere in their catalog, from their latest LP In Love With Oblivion, to their current Radiant Door EP, and all the way back to their 2008 breakout LP Alight of Night. They also served up a relatively rare track, “Love Is A Wave” from a 2009 7″, as well as a new number that I am calling “Delirium” for now. This set was completely different than the one we saw back in May

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK5 microphones and a soundboard feed from the Glasslands staff. Like many of our Crystal Stilts recordings, this one is excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Delirium [new song]”

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Stream “Love Is A Wave”

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Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Crystal Stilts
2012-06-17
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

If you enjoyed these recordings, PLEASE SUPPORT Crystal Stilts, visit their website and purchase In Love With Oblivion from Slumberland Records [HERE] and the Radiant Door EP from Sacred Bones Records [HERE].

At this Northside Festival day show meant to showcase four of the “8 Bands You Need to Hear” (as determined by the L Magazine), Starlight Girls drew a crowd. As the first act on the bill, taking the stage during what most festivalgoers probably thought of as “recovery time” could have been a challenge. But by about the middle of “Try”, the third song in their set, the Spike Hill show room was packed. The band serves up an addictive sound that references lounge music, 60s girl groups, soul and lo-fi indie rock – a perfect antidote to a hung over afternoon. The show began on a mellow note, but quickly ramped up the energy as the crowd (and the band’s confidence) grew. By the time the band tore into “Lion In A Cage,” my favorite number of the day, they had won over all doubters. I was also a big fan of one of the earlier, more lounge-y numbers, “$9,000,000” in particular.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK5 cardioid microphones and a soundboard feed from the Spike Hill engineer. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Thanks to Spike Hill and Starlight Girls.

Stream “$9,000,000”

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Stream “Lion In A Cage”

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Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Starlight Girls
2012-06-16
Spike Hill
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Fresh & Onlys guitarist Wymond Miles proved his chops as a frontman in his own right at this Glasslands show during the Northside Festival. With this particular show being showcase of some of the most promising acts from Sacred Bones Records, Miles easily put himself in that company with a performance that introduced (or re-introduced) the crowd to his solo material, including his most recent record (and second this year!), Under the Pale Moon. A downbeat record that tackles some recent tragedies in Miles’ personal life, Miles’ delivery was anything but dour. Although he was technically the night’s resident ambassador of the San Francisco psych-rock scene, Miles’ set carried on the stripped-down immediacy of Under the Pale Moon; a rocker like “Run Like the Hunted” has no space for blissed-out psychedelia. That role was left to the tracks from Miles’ Earth Has Doors EP, “”Hidden Things Are Asking You To Find Them”, “Temples of Magick” and the set’s closer, “Earth Has Doors, Let Them Open”. Miles has obvious gifts as a frontman, both in his command of an audience and his look. With his prolific songwriting ability to go with it, it’s fair to say that Miles is in no danger of being “some dude from that other band” in the eyes of anyone.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK5 microphones in our usual spot in the venue, plus a soundboard feed. The results are excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Pale Moon”

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Stream “The Thirst”

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Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Wymond Miles
2012-06-17
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

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